Surveying device



Mamh 1965 N. P. GAMMON 3,17 05 SURVEYING DEVICE Filed Jan. 15. 1962 INVENTOR.

OER/AN & BLACKHAM A 7'7'0R/VEY5 NORMA/V P GAMMOA/ I United States Patent 3,172,265 SURVEYENG DEVICE Norman P. Gammon, 14171 Riata Ave., Westminster, Qaiif. Filed Jan. 15, 1962, Ser. No. 156,214 1 Claim. (til. 3374) This invention pertains to a new and improved surveying device, and more particularly to a surveying device which is designed so as to hold a plumb line and which is designed so as to serve as a target and so as to automatically retrieve the plumb line.

An object of the present invention is to provide a surveying device incorporating a plumb line which can be utilized in order to carry out a variety of different operations connected with surveying. Another object of this invention is to provide in a device of this type a structure capable of being used as a surveying target for various operations. A still further object of this invention is to provide a surveyors device as indicated above which is designed so that it can be conveniently mounted as required during use beneath a transit or similar instrument.

Other related objects of the present invention are to provide devices as indicated briefly in the preceding paragraph which are relatively easy to manufacture and construct and which, because of this, may be sold at comparatively nominal prices. Another related object of the present invention is to provide surveying devices which are extremely simple to utilize and which can be employed in a wide variety of difierent manners as may be desired during surveying operations.

These and other objects of this invention as well as many specific advantages of it will be more fully apparent from a detailed considerationof the remainder of this specification including the appended claim and the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. '1 is a perspective view of a surveyors device of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of this device;

FIG. 3 is a still further elevational view of this device taken in the direction of arrow 3 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken at line 4-4 of FIG. 3 of the drawing;

FIG. 5 is an elevational view showing the manner in which the surveying device of the present invention can be employed as a target; and

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view illustrating the use of the surveying device in connection with a conventional surveyors transit.

The accompanying drawing is primarily intended so as to clearly illustrate a presently preferred embodiment or form of this invention. From a consideration of the drawing and of the remainder of this specification it will be realized that a number of minor changes of a routine engineering or design nature may be made in the precise surveying device shown without departing from the features or principles of this invention as summarized and defined in the appended claims forming a part of this disclosure.

As an aid to understanding this invention it can be stated in essentially summary form that the surveying device of this invention includes a housing having two opposed sides and an end. One of these sides is formed in a well known checker-board type manner so as to appear as a conventional surveyors target and so as to include a groove. Within the housing there is located a rotatable reel and a spring which is attached to this reel and the housing. This reel in turn holds a cord or line which extends out through an opening in the end of the housing. A complete surveying device of the present invention also preferably includes various other means as hereinafter specifically indicated.

An understanding of the present invention and of the surveying device of it illustrated in the accompanying drawing requires a detailed consideration of this drawing.

In it there is shown a surveying device 10 of the present I invention which includes a two-part housing 12 having opposed parallel flat sides 14, first and second ends, 16 and 18 respectively, and other sides 20. These ends 16 and 13 are located so as to be substantially parallel to one another Within the interior of the housing 12 there is located a central shaft 22 having a slot 24 formed in it which extends across the diameter of this shaft 22.

A helical spring 26 is disposed about a shaft 22 so that a bent end 28 of it extends into'the interior of the slot 24. The other end 30 of the spring 26 is secured by a rivet 32 or other equivalent means to a cylindrical or drum-like interior surface 34 of a reel 36. This reel 36 includes a central or body portion 38 extending along one side of the spring 26, and this portion 38 is formed so as to include a center opening 40 serving as a bearing end engaging the exterior surface of the shaft 22. Thus, by virtue of the construction the reel 36 may be rotated upon the shaft 22.

The reel 36 includes a peripheral groove 42 of a generally U-shaped cross-sectional configuration which is adapted to hold a line or cord 44 in the device 10. This end of this line or cord 44 may be secured within the interior of the groove 42 in virtually any convenient man ner as, for example, by being tied' to a projecting end 46 of the rivet 32. Other equivalent means for securing the cord 44 in place may be utilized.

This cord 44 extends out of an opening 48 in the first end 16 located approximately midway between the other sides 2G. This opening 48 is in alignment with a groove 5t) which extends at a right angle to the end 16 across one of the sides'14 between the ends 16 and 18.

This groove 59 is of approximately the dimension necessary so that the cord 44 may be easily held within it, This same side 14 containing the groove 50 is divided into areas 52 along the sides of the groove 50 of different colors so that this side '14 is capable of serving as a surveyors target.

The side 14 of the housing 12 remote from the groove 50 is provided With a small boss-like projection 54 having a tapered side 55. In the embodiment of the device 16 shown this projection 54 has essentially the shape of a frustum of a right circular cone, and is located so that a smaller extremity of it is directly against a side 14 of the housing 12. If desired, the projection 54 may be formed integrally with the housing 12 or it may be separately secured to it by any convenient conventional fastening means. The location of this projection 54 in the device 10 is considered quite important. Preferably it is located so that an edge of the side 56 lies in a plane determined by the groove 5d and the hole or opening 43. In other Words, an edge of the projection 54 abutting against the side 14 is located 'on the housing 12 directly opposite the groove 50.

The use of the surveying device lib is comparatively simple. It may be used as a simple holder for a plumb bob line by pulling a plumb bob 58 of conventional character attached to an extremity of the line or cord 44 away from the device 10. As this is done, of course, the line or cord 44 causes rotation of the reel 36 against the spring 26. When the line or cord 44 has been distended in this manner it may be held in place with the index finger and the thumb with the housing fitting in the palm of the hand so that the cord 44 extends vertically so as to be used in conventional operations. Alternatively however, this line or cord 44 may be laid across the end 16 of the housing 12 and may be located Within the groove 50 as the housing 12 is held so that this groove 5% extends vertically. The line or cord 44 may be held distended to any given amount in this position by merely locating a digit of the hand against the portion of the cord 44 overlying the end 16 of the housing 12. When the device 10 is used in this manner it appears as indicated in FIG. 5 of the drawing and may be conveniently employed directly as a surveyors target.

It is also possible to utilize the device 10 as indicated in the manner shown in FIG. 6 of the drawing so that the line or cord 44 when pulled out of the housing 12 extends upwardly from the end 16 around a hook or the like 60 formed on the bottom of a platform 62 of a conventional surveyors transit or similar instrument 64. In this position the device 10 is located in the center of the legs 66 supporting this plat-form 62. When the device 10 is employed in this manner the line or cord 44 is wrapped around the projection 54 one or more times. By virtue of the orientation of the projection 54 described above the plumb bob 58 will hange directly beneath the hook 69 when the device 10 is used in this manner. As it is used in this manner the shape of the edge 56 will serve to hold the line 44 in a position in which the plumb bob 58 is directly beneath the hook 60. The weight of the plumb bob 58 is normally suificient so as to overcome any tendency to reel in the line or cord'44 of the spring 26 and to hold the device 10 in any desired position corresponding to the desired level of the bob 58. Such a level may be regulated by merely pulling the device 10 away from or toward the platform 62 in order to adjust the length of the cord 44. From a consideration of theforegoing it will be realized that the cord is reeled into the interior of the housing 12 whenever the tension on this cord is relieved. Preferably the weight of the plumb bob 58 is such as to counterbalance any tendency of the spring 26 to reel in the line or cord 44 in the normal utilization of the devicelO.

Because of the nature of this invention and the fact that it is capable of being used in a number of different manners in order to facilitate difierent surveying operations, and because of the fact that various changes of a routine engineering or mechanical character may be made in this precise structure shown, this invention is to be considered as being limited solely by the appended claim forming a part of this disclosure.

I claim:

A surveying device which includes:

a housing having two opposed sides having edges and an end extending between said sides, said end having a centrally located hole leading into the interior of said housing formed therein;

a reel rotatably mounted within the interior of said housing;

a cord wrapped around said reel and extending out of said hole, a plumb bob secured to said cord;

cord guide means formed in alignment with said hole, said cord being capable of fitting within said cord guide means to extend along one "of the sides of said a housing, said cord guide means restraining said cord at least at the edges of said one side;

target means located on said side of said housing and covering substantially said entire side adjacent to said cord guide means;

a projection formed on the other side of said housing, said projection having an edge against said housing in the same plane as said cord guide means and said hole;

a spring means located within the interior of said housing and secured to said housing and said reel, said spring means being connected to said reel and to said housing and being for turning said reel so as to reel said cord into the interior of said housing after said cord has been pulled from said housing through said hole, said spring exerting a tension in said cord in excess of the weight of said surveying device and less than the weight of said plumb bob.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 384,951 6/88 Adkins 33-216 X 2,637,109 5/53 Willis 33-74 2,637,913 5/53 Williams 33-217 2,640,276 76/53 Williams 33-217 2,663,937 12/53 Fatkin 33-74 2,849,805 9/58 Kruse 33-217 ISAAC LISANN, Primary Examiner. 

